As part of London i-design I went to the portfolio clinic, for recent graduates and students.  There was the opportunity to speak to some major London-based digital companies, including some of the speakers from the day.  It was very busy, and pretty much a free-for-all, but I did manage to speak to Imagination, AIG and Tribal DDB.

The majority of my feedback was positive, to keep working on the sort of projects I had been doing, and keep building up my portfolio.  Imagination did mention that the way I presented my work wasn’t very concise.  As I had a range of different programs showing my work (flash player, quicktime, acrobat) they suggested I could present each piece as a pdf, with a brief explanation, and then show the piece in its actuality.  I think this could really help me, as I’m not the most natural public speaker, and when nervous I can lose drift of what I’m saying.   However, in an actual interview I would show my work in a portfolio, and then go to the piece on my computer, but there wasn’t room for this at the portfolio clinic.

I showed each company the work I was doing at the moment, and received some really useful insights in to how I could expand the projects.

Pixel City:

Tribal DDB suggested I make adding more emotional searches to it, as in ‘turn-it-up’, ‘turn-it-down’, relating to how heavy a night you wanted.

I did originally think of having options like ‘cool’, ‘happy’, to filter what sort of vibe you wanted the venue to have.  However, that brings up the issues of personal opinions - what some people consider to be ‘cool’ isn’t what others consider it to be.  Although I did think that the sort of Agnys Dean scene (sorry!) is generally recognised as being cool, even though its not what I’m in to.

Malcolm Garrett at AIG suggested different formats the map could be in, as in what landmarks to look out for nearby, as I had done in the way-finding section of the Virgin in-flight screens.

Virgin In-Flight Screens:

AIG liked how the screens offered a practical alternative to the usual selection of mediocre films available, and thought Virgin was a great choice as they are a relatively innovative brand.  They mentioned how cameras had been placed under the plane before, but combined with the google earth view it gave it relevance and perspective.  The overall vibe I got from AIG was to be quite experimental about the ideas, I had been designing it quite clinically - exactly how it would look and work including designing the page where movies and other existing entertainment would be accessed.

The BBC reviewed the day, including the portfolio clinic and a little picture of me whilst I was speaking to Tribal DDB.

My website was also featured in the gallery, unfortunately I wasn’t named, but I did get a nice comment.

Following on from Pixel City I began considering other problems I’ve experienced whilst visiting another city, and considered how a travel company could try to solve these problems as some sort of promotion.  I came up with idea of expanding the usage of the in-flight screens  which are now on all Virgin Altlantic flights.  I wanted to make the screens useful to what the passengers would need, as well as a source of entertainment.

Way-finding system to allow you to plan your journey from the airport to your destination.

Basic route map view.

Arrival map view, with nearby landmarks highlighted to help you recognise the location.

Sky Camera and Flight Tracking, viewable to side-to-side to enhance perspective.